Meadowsweet, Queen of the Meadow

Meadowsweet is one of my favourite meadow flowers, coming to the end of its season now, seen here with a dried stem of cow parsley against the backdrop of Cockleshell Bay, Ganavan, Oban. Gorgeous day, sunshine pretty much all the way.

Meadowsweet likes moist conditions to produce its lovely fluffy cotton-like flowers with their delicious scent. They attract bees in profusion.

Medical uses, according to Culpepper and Gerard, for colds, arthritis, skin diseases, indigestion and peptic ulcers, although as aspirin has been produced from meadowsweet I wouldn't be sure about using it for the last two.

It can be used in pot pourri to bring its lovely scent indoors, but the touch of the plant brings me out in a rash, so sadly not for me.